Technology/Services

5 C-Store Chains With Retail Media Networks

Wawa, 7-Eleven, EG America, more are prioritizing collecting consumer data to serve relevant ads
Retail Media Network
Photograph: Shutterstock

Retail media spend in the U.S. is growing, and in 2024, it reached $59.6 billion, according to NexChapter, a strategic growth advisory firm for the convenience and grocery channels based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Retail media networks (RMNs) connect retailers and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands with the help of technology suppliers.

From a convenience retailer’s perspective, RMNs are about taking consumer data and allowing that data to be used to serve relevant ads to consumers in partnership with CPG companies. These ads can exist both on- and off-site, whether it’s inside stores, on websites or via apps.

More convenience stores launched RMNs this year. Take a look at which retailers are leaning into this strategy.

Wawa

Wawa Inc. launched “Goose Media Network” in February. The RMN supports customers’ convenience-store shopping experience by allowing them to engage with partner brands through custom ads and campaigns across a variety of digital channels.

  • Wawa is No. 9 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count.

Current product and brand partners can participate in programs delivering promotions on Wawa’s websites, on the mobile app or at a Wawa convenience store through video at the pump, all with visually appealing media that allow visitors to discover and engage with their product, brand and Wawa’s offerings.

Wawa, Pennsylvania-based Wawa partnered with Publicis Groupe’s Publicis Sapient, Epsilon and CitrusAd to bring together their digital business transformation services, retail media expertise and advertising technology platform.

7-Eleven

While it was launched in October 2022, 7-Eleven’s RMN, Gulp Media Network, expanded deployment of Gulp Radio in 2024.

Gulp Radio offers an opportunity to influence the shopper at the point of purchase by deploying advertising and messaging via in-store audio.

Currently in more than 4,000 stores and plans to launch in more than 12,000 stores by the end of 2025, including all 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes locations nationwide.

Gulp Media Network is designed to leverage 7-Eleven’s customer purchase and behavioral data, with 95 million loyalty members, according to 7-Eleven. Gulp is a closed-loop solution with the ability to track return on ad spend (ROAS) and internet ROAS by deploying advertising and messaging through social, display, gas pump TV, connected TV ads and CRM throughout Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven’s stores across 47 of the top 50 designated market areas (DMAs) in the United States.

EG America

EG America, Westborough, Massachusetts, partnered with Axonet, a c-store retail media network company based in Chicago, to deploy a RMN. It will empower advertisers to engage EG America shoppers across various touchpoints, from offsite interactions to in-store experiences, the company said.

Through this partnership, EG America will leverage solutions to enhance the shopping journey, further personalize offers and promotions for its SmartRewards loyalty program customers and strengthen brand partnerships.

Casey’s

Casey’s General Stores Inc., Ankeny Iowa, introduced its RMN, Casey’s Access, in early 2023.

  • Casey's General Stores Inc. is No. 3 on CSP's 2024 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count.

CPG companies and other vendor partners can leverage data to connect audiences with relevant promotions, offers and marketing content.

This year, Justin Coaldrake took over as director of omnichannel guest experience and media, leading the RMN, after Art Sebastian left Casey’s to launch NexChapter Inc., a growth-advisory firm.

GetGo

In June 2023, supermarket and convenience-store retailer Giant Eagle, parent company of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based GetGo Café + Market, launched its in-house retail media network, Leap Media Group.

  • Alimentation Couche-Tard, which is acquiring GetGo, is No. 2 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. GetGo is No. 29.

This year, Leap Media Group joined the Rippl data and media network. Rippl, powered by Bridg, a division of Cardlytics Inc., aims to solve challenges created by first-party data constraints, aggregated data limitations and disparate measurement approaches for the Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle and GetGo Café + Market, the retailer’s convenience-store division.

With Giant Eagle’s Leap Media Group joining the Rippl family, he said the partnership will also uphold “Leap’s ongoing commitment to prioritizing consumers’ data privacy.”

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